Re: New Novartis Patent VI

Charles Benbrook (benbrook@hillnet.com)
Sun, 19 Dec 1999 11:51:38 -0800

The claims in this patent strike me as almost unbelievable; at a minimum,
they are incredibly broad. I can imagine some such impacts-correlations
between use of a pesticide and a transgenic corn variety, but to present
them as a novel patentable discovery is to, in effect, lay claim to many
basic physiological processes in plants. Thanks to Wytze for digging
deeper into this, soon I hope to spend some time reading the patents, and
may have some observations to share. I hope others will do so as well, for
I see this patent as fundamentally important and new. The scientific and
grower communities need to understand exactly what is at stake if this
patent, and others like it, are granted and what the commercial and
economic consequences might be.

chuck

At 03:21 PM 12/19/99 +0100, wytze wrote:
>Synergistic effects and advantages of the "invention" as described in
>patent WO9935913.
>
>"In particular, it has been found, surprisingly, that within the scope
>of invention the pesticidal activity of a nitroimino- or
>nitroguanidino-compound in combination with the effect expressed by the
>transgenic useful plant, is not only additive in comparison with the
>pesticidal activities of the nitroimino- or nitroguanidino- compound
>alone and of the transgenic useful plant alone, as can generally be
>expected, but that a synergistic effect is present. The term
>"synergistic", however, is in no way to be understood in this connection
>as being restricted to the pesticidal activity, but the term also refers
>to other advantageous properties of the method according to the
>invention compared with the nitroimino- or nitroguanidino-compound and
>the transgenic useful plant alone.
>Examples of such advantageous properties which may be mentioned are:
>-extension of the pesticidal spectrum of action to other pests, for
>example to resistant strains;
>-reduction in the application rate of the nitroimino- or
>nitroguanidino-compound, or sufficient control of the pests with the aid
>of the compositions according to the invention even at an application
>rate of the nitroimino- or nitroguanidino-compound alone and the
>transgenic useful plant alone are entirely ineffective;
>-enhanced crop safety;
>-improved quality of produce such as higher content of nutrient or oil,
>better fiber quality, enhanced shelf life, reduced content of toxic
>products such as mycotoxins, reduced content of residues or unfavorable
>constituents of any kind or better digestability;
>-improved tolerance to unfavorable temperatures, draughts or salt
>content of water;
>-enhanced assimilation rates such as nutrient uptake and photosynthesis;
>
>-favorable crop properties such as altered leaf aerea, reduced
>vegetative growth, increased yields, favorable seedshape/seedthickness
>or germinisation properties, altered colonialisation by saprophytes or
>epiphytes, reduction of senescence, improved phytoalexin production,
>improved or accelerated ripening, flower set increase, reduced boll fall
>and shattering, better attraction to beneficials and predators,
>increased pollination, reduced attraction to birds; or other advantages
>known to those skilled in the art"
>
>I will check some of the details of the patent again, especially the
>part that mentions a reduction rate of 40-50%!
>Wytze
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
>"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
>To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
>
>All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>

Charles Benbrook CU FQPA site www.ecologic-ipm.com
Benbrook Consulting Services Ag BioTech InfoNet www.biotech-info.net
5085 Upper Pack River Road IPM site www.pmac.net
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
208-263-5236 (Voice) 208-263-7342 (Fax)

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail